The Vitalized School eBook

=The Idealist.=—­This is equally true of
the vitalized teacher. She is a practical idealist.
In the words of the poet, her reach is beyond her
grasp, and this proclaims her an idealist. In
her capacity as a politician she makes a close study
of the wants of her constituents, both pupils and
parents, and so learns how best to articulate school
work with the interests of the community. She
does not hold aloof from her pupils or their homes,
but studies them at close range, as do the missionary
and the politician. She lives among them and so
learns their language and their modes of thinking
and living. Only so can she come into sympathetic
relations with them and be of greatest service to them
in promoting right substitutions. She finds one
boy surcharged with the instinct of pugnacity.
This tendency manifests itself both in school and
at home. Her own conclusions are ratified by the
parents. He wants to fight. His whole nature
cries aloud for battle. In such a case, neither
repression nor suppression will avail. So she
attaches a phase of school work to this native disposition
and gives his pugnacious instinct a fair field.

=An example.=—­Enlisting him as her champion
in a tournament, she pits against him a doughty antagonist
in the form of a problem in arithmetic. In tones
of encouragement she gives the signal and the fight
is on. The boy pummels that problem as he would
belabor a schoolmate on the playground. His whole
being is focused upon the adventure. And when
he has won his meed of praise, he feels himself a
real champion. The teacher merely substituted
mind for hands in the contest and so fell in with
his notion that fighting is quite right if only the
cause is a worthy one. He is quick to see the
distinction and so makes the substitution with alacrity
and with no loss of self-respect. Ever after
he disdains the vulgar brawl and does not lose the
fighting instinct. Thus the vitalized teacher
by knowing how to make substitutions wins for society
a valiant champion. If we multiply this example,
we shall readily see how such a teacher-politician
deserves the distinction of being termed a practical
idealist.